Tag: Romney

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Mitt Romney Politics Republican Tax taxes United States

Mitt Romney Admits His Tax Rate Is Probably 15 Percent

Ever wonder why Mitt Romney is so hesitant to do the right thing and release his tax returns? Well maybe the reason has something to do with his tax rate – a rate the Republican frontrunner admits is “probably” less than 15%.

Meanwhile, middle class America pays a rate of 38%.

GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney on Tuesday said he probably pays a tax rate of about 15 percent.

Romney, who has come under pressure from Republicans and Democrats alike to release his tax forms, said most of his income is in long-term capital gains, which is hit with a 15 percent rate.

“It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything, because my last 10 years, I’ve — my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income, or rather than earned annual income,” Romney said during a press conference in Florence, S.C. “I get a little bit of income from my book but I gave that all away. And then I get speakers’ fees from time to time but not very much.”

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Mitt Romney Politics Republican Rick Santorum United States

It’s Capital, Not Capitalism

Mitt Romney has said on the campaign trail that an attack on him is an attack on capitalism. Aside from being a self-serving, disingenuous, mendacious statement (which is enough, don’t you think?), it also shows how shallow and dangerous the Republican party has become.

Romney’s career at Bain Capital is a touchstone for his presidential aspirations, and his success at convincing American voters that it makes him qualified to be president will decide whether he wins in November. As of this moment, I would say that this particular venture is off to a rocky start.

Polling for President Obama’s PAC is showing that anti-Bain rhetoric is a winning issue for him. Rick Santorum is saying that Romney can’t win based on his Bain experience. Rick Perry called out Bain as “vulture capitalism” (and this is officially the last time that anything Rick Perry says will be quoted in the Farmer blog). Newt wants Romney to stop the “pious baloney.” The attacks have continued at such a pace that conservatives are rushing to defend Mitt and capitalism itself.

They must really be worried. After all, the GOP has fought for the last year to defund social services such as Planned Parenthood, enact cuts to education, redesign Medicare so seniors will actually have to pay more, and demonize people who are on unemployment benefits as lazy. Their candidates want to deny law-abiding children of illegal immigrants a shot at the American Dream, obliterate the Federal Reserve, go back into Iraq, make abortion illegal even in cases of rape or incest, oppose full civil rights for gays, keep taxes low on the wealthy so the rest of us have to make do with less, and allow banks and financial institutions to continue to do what got us into this recession in the first place.

But don’t mess with capitalism, mofo.

As usual, they have it all wrong. The questions about Bain Capital and venture capitalism are not about the future of our financial system. The problem is the function of that type of business in the American system. Venture firms do play some positive roles in the economy by either rescuing companies that might otherwise go out of business or by scooping up bargains due to bankruptcies. The makers of Twinkies recently went back into bankruptcy for the second time and I, for one, would like some venture firm to resuscitate it.

The negatives, though, are compelling. These firms have a reputation for chopping up companies into parts and selling them off to make money, and as a result people get laid off and towns suffer. They are seen as paper-pushers whose only concern is for profits and bonuses, not for actually building something. And they’re seen as being cold, calculating, number-crunching entities that don’t care about the effects of their work, only the results. They are ruthless in their Darwinian cruelty, but criticism of their tactics is about capital, not capitalism. Has Bain engaged in this type of behavior? Yes, yes, and yes.

The Republican Party has bet its success on a combination of Cold War-era baiting and big lies, as if their candidates are the only ones who can fix the financial problems created by their ideology. In the end, that strategy will fail because it ignores the fact that more people are not siding with the wealthy (though they don’t always blame them for the inequality). Romney’s defense of capitalism is laudable, but by aligning himself with the 1%, he’s left himself open to the withering attacks not only from his right flank, but from a full frontal assault that’s coming from Obama and the Democrats.

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Boston Church Mitt Romney Politics

Did Mitt Romney Force A Mother To Give Up Her Baby?

From Yahoo News:

Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, long considered a potential issue in his presidential campaign, came under scrutiny this week whenVanity Fair published excerpts from an upcoming book that delves into Mitt’s history as a lay leader in the church. The Real Romney, authored by Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, suggests that Mitt once threatened a single mother with excommunication if she didn’t give her soon-to-be-born baby up for adoption — an account the Republican frontrunner denies. Here, a brief guide to this unsettling story:

In the early 1980s, Romney was serving as bishop of a Mormon congregation near Boston. Peggie Hayes, a 23-year-old divorced single mother, became pregnant with her second child. Knowing she needed help, Romney arranged for Hayes to get odd jobs from other church members. But as bishop, Romney also bore the responsibility of briefing Hayes on church doctrine. As quoted in the book, she claims he showed up at her apartment and encouraged her to give her baby to the church’s adoption agency. According to Hayes, Romney said: “This is what the church wants you to do, and if you don’t, then you could be excommunicated.”

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Citizens United Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics presidential Republican Rick Santorum South Carolina

Apres-Primary Musings: Mitt Can’t Conquer the Mountain

We are not impressed.

If Mitt Romney can’t muster over 40% of the vote in a backyard state against a field of sub-par candidates with extreme positions on the issues, then he’s not ready yet for his curtain call. Yes, it certainly was a good day for Romney, but not as good as his victory speech would indicate.

He’ll win the nomination, but two things are abundantly clear. The first is that Romney still hasn’t galvanized his party as a candidate, and the second is that Republican enthusiasm is turning out to be somewhat of a myth.

Let’s get to the numbers.

Here’s what I said would happen (left) and here’s what actually happened (right):

Romney      38%        39.4%

Paul            19%        22.8%

Huntsman   16%       16.8%

Gingrich      11%         9.4%

Santorum    10%         9.3%

Roemer         3%         0.4%

Perry             1%          0.7%

As in Iowa, not bad. I seem to have underestimated Ron Paul’s reliable support and overestimated Buddy Roemer’s, but I don’t think I was alone.

If present reports are true, all the candidates are moving on to South Carolina where the PAC-men will be gobbling up money and air time in their quest for Romney’s scraps. This will be Citizens United writ not on the main stage, but as regional summer stock theater. Millions of dollars that otherwise could be spent on more significant pursuits will be sucked down the rabbit hole of ego and vanity. That’s the new democracy at work, and we’d all better get used to it because when the campaign moves to Broadway in the fall, there’s going to be an ad war like no other.

South Carolina is the last stand for Huntsman, Santorum and Perry to be sure unless any of them pull wild upsets and finish in the top 3, and above 20%. Gingrich could stay in if he’s in the top 3 because he now has PAC money and Paul and his minions will stick around for the duration. Romney can claim the nomination with a dominant performance, over 40%, but 30% will be enough to make him inevitable.

Follow the march to the south at facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives.

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Elections Mitt Romney Politics Tax taxes

Mitt Romney’s Plan Will Raise Your Taxes

Unless you’re earning over $1 million a year that is, then you will see your taxes cut by as much as $146,000 a year. But for the middle class Americans struggling to make ends meet, prepare to pay more in taxes if Mitt Romney becomes your president.

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center analyzed Mitt Romney’s tax proposals and, according to the Wall Street Journal, “concluded that Mr. Romney’s plan would reduce taxes significantly for high-income earners (by 6.9% or $146,000 for households making more than $1 million), and increase federal deficits by $180 billion in 2015 compared to current tax levels.”

And despite Romney’s claims, his plan would also raise taxes slightly for low-income families.

Associated Press: “Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 would get small tax cuts, averaging 2.2 percent, or about $250, the study said. People making more than $1 million would get tax cuts averaging 15 percent, or about $146,000.”

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Mitt Romney MSNBC Newt Gingrich Politics Republican republican debate Rick Santorum

Republican Debate – A Record Flip Flop For Romney – Video

A Republican debate happened yesterday and Romney stood above the fighting fray, walking away with little or no real attacks on him or his record.

A Republican debate happened today, and things were much different, as Romney took swings from Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman.

But Newt Gingrich took to the floor with one clear goal in mind. He wanted the audience to know the truth about Romney and his SuperPAC’s attempts to derail his candidacy with negative ads. Romney had previously said that he knew nothing about the actions of the PAC, or who they were. But today, he flip-flopped on that claim too.

Watch below, as Romney claimed he hadn’t seen any of the ads Gingrich was talking about, only to turn around and perfectly describe the ads he didn’t see.

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Iowa Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Republican Rick Santorum

Republican Debate – To Romney’s Delight, The Losers Attacked Each Other

With the Iowa primaries over and Mitt Romney crowned the winner by an apparent technicality, the expectation was that his fellow competitors would use whatever avenue they had available to show why they are more deserving of the Republican nomination. That perfect avenue presented itself last night in yet another Republican debate, but the other five Iowa primary losers on stage were more satisfied with fighting each other, instead of distinguishing themselves from Willard.

The former Massachusetts governor was subject to the first attack of the night but that early fire was quickly overshadowed by testy exchanges between Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.

It’s been more than three weeks since the Republican presidential candidates have been on stage together. The last time they gathered,

Gingrich led in the polls and Michele Bachmann was still in the race.

It was a different scenario at Saturday night’s debate, sponsored by ABC News and Yahoo News.

Romney, who virtually tied Santorum in the Iowa caucuses and holds a double-digit lead in the New Hampshire polls, was expected to be a target.

He wasn’t.

There was one early attack.

Meanwhile, Romney stood idle by with a smile on his face.

How dumb was this strategy to attack each other instead of the leader? After the debate, one of ABC’s political analysis observed that Ron Paul was on the attack – going after Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich – but did not lay one finger on the leader Mitt Willard Romney. This insight led to the conclusion that Paul was like a puppet on a string. “I’m sure if you rip open Paul’s shirt,” he said, “you’ll see one of Mitt’s sons at the control.”

If you are trying to win your party’s nomination, but are too scared to use a debate to point out Romney’s non-existent record, then you have no business running for the most powerful office in the nation.

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Iowa Iowa caucuses Mitt Romney Politics Republican Rick Santorum

Did Mitt Romney Get 20 Extra Iowa Votes He Didn’t Earn?

One of the actual vote counters in Iowa’s Republican primary election last Tuesday has come forward, arguing that Mitt Romney got an extra 20 votes he wasn’t supposed to get.

Edward True, 28, of Moulton, said he helped count the votes and jotted the results down on a piece of paper to post to his Facebook page. He said when he checked to make sure the Republican Party of Iowa got the count right, he said he was shocked to find they hadn’t.

“When Mitt Romney won Iowa by eight votes and I’ve got a 20-vote discrepancy here, that right there says Rick Santorum won Iowa,” True said. “Not Mitt Romney.”

True said at his 53-person caucus at the Garrett Memorial Library, Romney received two votes. According to the Iowa Republican Party’s website, True’s precinct cast 22 votes for Romney.

“This is huge,” True said. “It essentially changes who won.”

Romney was called the winner of the Iowa primary by 8 votes. If Mr. True is correct, it means that Rick Santorum won by 12 votes.

And the circus continues!

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Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Planned Parenthood Politics

Newt Gingrich To Mitt Romney – Liar Liar Pants On Fire

The only time in Newt Gingrich’s political career that he decided to go clean and not destroy his opponents with negative ads caused Gingrich to be demolished by negative ads against him. In the month of December, Gingrich went from leading the Republicans with 26% to barely polling ahead of Rick Perry with only 13% of the Republican voters.

After trying to walk the straight and narrow path, Gingrich today showed a glimpse of how he built his political career – through being down-right nasty, calling Willard Romney a liar!

Tired, frustrated and irritated, by his own account, Mr. Gingrich heartily agreed when a television interviewer asked him Tuesday if he was calling Mr. Romney a “liar” in claiming to be a conservative.

“Here’s a Massachusetts moderate,” Mr. Gingrich said, whose “Romneycare” health plan when Mr. Romney was governor of Massachusetts included taxpayer-paid abortions and put a Planned Parenthood official on a state health  board — red-cape issues for social conservatives.

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Iowa Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Rick Santorum

Presidential Polling Report: Special Iowa Edition

And you thought the holidays were over. Having the Iowa caucuses so soon after the new year is a great gift for political junkies and opens what should be an expensive, long, important and uniquely-American national election season. That Iowa and New Hampshire take all of the attention so early is an unfortunate quirk of the system and will provide us with untimely candidate exits and lots of wasted money.

If you’re new to the process, or just can’t believe this is how we elect our president, here’s how the Iowa caucuses work.

And now onto the analysis and predictions.

The poll that everyone is talking about was released on Saturday: The Des Moines Register’s poll of likely caucus attendees.

The poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday, shows support at 24 percent for Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts; 22 percent for Paul, a Texas congressman; and 15 percent for the surging Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

But the four-day results don’t reflect just how quickly momentum is shifting in a race that has remained highly fluid for months. If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent.

“Momentum’s name is Rick Santorum,” said the Register’s pollster, J. Ann Selzer.
Another sign of the race’s volatility: 41 percent of likely caucusgoers say they could still be persuaded to change their minds.

Rounding out the field, in results from the full, four-day poll: former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 12 percent, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 11 percent, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, 7 percent.  

Based on the results of this poll, one scenario stands out to me. If Romney wins, it gives him great momentum heading into New Hampshire one week from today. Assuming he wins that, we could see full carnage among the challengers. Bachmann will either drop out of the race or her supporters will go to another conservative candidate, probably Santorum if he comes in second in Iowa. A fifth place finish for Perry would also lead many of his supporters to Santorum. Jon Huntsman will also leave after losing in New Hampshire, with his supporters moving to Romney and perhaps Gingrich. In any event, a conservative will emerge as the main challenger to Romney. That will become the main story through South Carolina and Florida later in January. If it’s Santorum, it will represent one of the great come-from-behinds in a long while.

It’s hard to say that a Santorum win immediately sets him up as Romney’s most viable main challenger. He’ll need to quickly establish a presence in South Carolina and Florida, which takes money and ground game, and he doesn’t seem to have much of either. He can, as can Gingrich or Paul if they place highly in Iowa, bypass New Hampshire or at least pass it off as Romney’s backyard and focus on the states where there are more social conservatives. Gingrich could spend more time in New Hampshire and claim a moral victory. I’m not putting much faith in a Paul victory after Iowa.

The 41% of Iowans who could change their mind are the wild cards in this race. If they decide that Romney is most electable, he’ll win a resounding victory and the race will be all but over. If they stay with one or two of the conservatives, then the race gets more interesting and probably lasts a bit longer. A stronger Gingrich showing than fourth makes him the main competition, but I don’t see it. Mainly because the thought frightens me a bit. Nothing scientific about that.

A PPP poll released on Monday shows

Ron Paul at 20 percent, Mitt Romney at 19 percent and Rick Santorum at 18 percent on a survey for which PPP reports a margin of error for each candidate of +/- 2.7 percent. Running farther back are Newt Gingrich at 14 percent, Rick Perry at 10 percent, Michele Bachmann at 8 percent, Jon Huntsman at 4 percent and Buddy Roemer at 2 percent. PPP interviewed 1,340 likely Republican caucus goers on December 31 and January 1.

Santorum again seems to be the recipient of a late surge and is the second choice of 14% of respondents, the highest of any of the candidates. His personal approval rating of 60% is twice his disapproval rating. heady stuff for someone who lost their last election.

The rest of the polling can be seen at RealClearPolitics.com

Both NBC and the Rasmussen poll have Romney, Paul and Santorum in that order, which supports the Register poll from the weekend.

And here’s a nice chart from Polls and Votes

My pick for the results are as follows:

Romney 26%

Santorum 24%

Paul 21%

Gingrich 15%

Perry 8%

Bachmann 5%

It’s always more fun when you stick your neck out (like Louis XVI and his lovely wife Marie), so make your prediction in the comments section. Remember that in order to complain about the process, you have to commit to it.

As always, you can follow the action here and at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

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Barack Obama Iowa caucuses Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics presidential Republican Rick Santorum

The Top Five Mitt Romney Tantrums of 2011

There’s an attribute that goes hand in hand with someone who was being born into riches, and that is the need to always get their way. They will throw temper tantrums even if they’re wrong, just to be heard. It is always their turn to talk, even if it means shouting you down in the process.

Mitt Romney is the perfect example of this. Born with a gold spoon in his mouth, Romney will never learn how to be humble and allow others to voice their opinions. The DNC just released this video showing the top five moments in 2011 when Romney had to have his way. Something they call, the “Mitt Fit.”

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Barack Obama democrats Mitt Romney Politics Republican Texas

President Obama Beat Republican Candidates For Hispanic Vote

Hispanics are slowly becoming the largest voting block in the American political system. Hispanics are also a group of people highly despised by the Republican party – a party that has embraced an anti-immigration, anti Dream Act, “build the darn electrified fence now!” mentality. So it is no surprise that this group have been an ardent supporter of President Obama.

The Poll…

The survey, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, revealed a general-election weakness for Republicans among an increasingly influential voting bloc — with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry each winning less than one-fourth of the Hispanic vote in hypothetical matchups against Obama.

Obama leads Romney by 68 percent to 23 percent and Perry by 69 percent to 23 percent among Hispanic voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points for the sample.

But have no fear. The Republican party are also well verse in the art on pandering.

With just a few more days before the Iowa primary begins on January 3rd, don’t expect any promises to the Hispanic community as the Republican candidates are still focused on pleasing their Teaparty base. But after this primary season is over, we expect nothing less than some baseless promises from the GOP nominee. Don’t be surprised the nominee offer open borders and amnesty, and free health care for all the undocumented people in this country.

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